We temporarily returned to Raum and restarted our preparations. We could do this because Maxwell's Portal Gate could return us to where we left off in a split second.
We decided to take a short break in the living room that faced the garden, after which we went shopping. Lyell, Maria, and Gadius went to replenish their Items while leaving the totally exhausted Tricia and us kids behind to rest.
Meanwhile, Cortina massaged our bodies in turns.
"Ahh, that's the spot. Push a little harder there."
"Oh shut it! Leaving the kids aside, for you to fall first, aren't you lacking a bit too much in exercise?"
"I belong to desk work."
Tricia was on good terms with Cortina, as usual. Despite her impudent argument, Cortina continued to carefully loosen her body muscles.
Since we kids were fast to recover, we were currently resting while sipping on hot milk with sugar. Maxwell, on the other hand, disappeared to the warehouse.
"Are you sure you don't need to prepare, Cortina?"
"Yeah, I asked Maria with it so I'm good. If it's just some mask with Purify effect on it, it shouldn't cost that much."
"Huh, I'm pretty sure it costs half of my monthly salary, though..."
This wasn't because Tricia had a particularly small salary. Purify was among the beginner Magics, but because it was so convenient, items bestowed with its effect went for quite a sum.
It was originally a Magic to purify water, but it also held the effects to purify minor internal toxins as well as the surrounding atmosphere on a very small scale.
It wasn't only indispensable for securing water, cleaning, and washing, but also for light detoxification, and it also allowed one to move in a toxic gas-filled environment.
For that reason, these Magic-bestowed Items could be said to be essential tools for the Adventurers. Being profitable yet having high mortality, they changed generations quite often. Since new Adventurers kept popping into existence, so did the demand for those items. Thus their value remained unbudged.
"You should also take a good rest once you are done drinking that. We'll be climbing after this, so it'll get quite tough."
"Got it."
"Understood."
Letina and Michelle answered with big nods. I also gave a nod of my own while bringing the cup to my mouth. Honestly speaking, Michelle and Letina aside, I'm so tired I just want to sleep like this. My friends were beside me, but I didn't have any energy to play with them.
Finishing my milk, I laid my body to rest and discussed the previous fight with my two friends. It was a familiar scene for me, but these two saw it for the first time and were very moved.
"Sir Lyell looked so cool! He sent its head with a whoosh! It only took him one swing!"
"Calm down for a bit, you are acting too immodest. Rather, Sir Gadius was even better. The way he casually shrugged off the Fire Giant's breath was amazing!"
"Ehh, Sir Lyell was the amazing one, okay?"
"You lack discipline if you only look at what's fleshy, you know?"
"Nonsense."
"Nicole, who do you think was better?"
"Ngh?"
Hearing my name called out while I was half asleep made me open my eyes in confusion. While rubbing my sleepy eyes, I tried to remember their conversation that I was ignoring.
"Errr..."
"It's Sir Lyell, isn't it, Nicole!"
"No, it's Sir Gadius, isn't it, Nicole?"
"Ermm... Cortina?"
"How did you come to that conclusion?"
She accurately analyzed the power between us and the opponent and judged that Lyell and Gadius would be enough for the job. Were she not there, both Maxwell and Maria would've joined in, and overused the firepower where it was not needed.
Among the long-term Adventurers, defeating foes with minimal battle power was an extremely important factor. But to achieve that, Cortina's presence was indispensable.
"...In other words, if Cortina wasn't there, they might have pointlessly showered it with Magic."
"I suppose that is one way to look at it."
"Nicole, you are amazing."
They started clapping and praised me, but honestly speaking, I was just speaking from my past life experience. It wasn't because my insight was particularly outstanding or anything, so that act made me somewhat embarrassed.
"Heh, so Nicole was paying attention to where she should. You should learn from her."
"No thanks, I'm just a public-health doctor."
Cortina expressed her admiration while slapping Tricia on the back of her head. Normally, someone my age couldn't understand the gravity of drawn-out fights.
"It looks quite lively here."
Meanwhile, Maxwell showed up in the garden pulling some kind of cart with him. We could see him since the living room was facing the garden. Judging from its appearance, there didn't seem to be that many items inside that cart. Wasn't using a cart to carry them a bit of an exaggeration?
"Maxwell, isn't that thing a little too big for the job?"
"Not necessarily. The luggage will only grow from now on."
"Even if you say luggage... Oh."
Cortina suddenly realized something.
"I see. You mean a Golem!"
There was a Magic called Create Golem. Using a block of wood or a lump of earth as a catalyst, you could create a simple familiar. This belonged to the system called Puppetry Magic, which didn't have many practitioners.
The reason was that the Golem's battle power was far inferior to even the user, and as it always needed to be given minute instructions, the practitioner had no time to use any other Magic. It was a technique with difficult practicality unless you could use Chantless or High-Speed Casting like Maria and Maxwell.
Magic-Swordsmen used them in place of vanguards or just for luggage carrying. It had no other use. But in our case, even if he planned to use the Golem to carry the cart, what was the point when there was no real luggage?
As I was thinking that, Cortina started to explain.
"He plans to use that cart to carry Tricia and you kids."
"Ah, I see now."
Tricia and I suffered from a severe lack of stamina. There was more than enough possibility of us becoming so fatigued we couldn't even defend ourselves when push came to shove. As such, Maxwell decided to let us ride the cart and carry us with the Golem.
"Thank god. We can climb with this!"
"Yayy!"
The first raise such a cheerful shout wasn't me, Michelle, or Letina, but Tricia instead.
